The passing of the last surviving Indian Victoria Cross winner, Umrao Singh, marked the end of an era. Vijay Mohan
reports the heroic deeds of other Indian recipients of the award, cherished as an epitome of heroism and bravery.

On
October 31, 1914, at Hollebeke, Belgium, Sepoy Khudadad Khan from
129th Duke of Connaught’s Own Baluchis, was in the machine-gun
section of his battalion and was working one of the two guns. The
British officer in charge of the detachment had been wounded and the
other gun was put out of action by a shell. Sepoy Khudadad Khan,
although wounded himself, continued working his gun after all the
other five men of the detachment had been killed. He was left
by the enemy for dead. He later managed to crawl out and rejoin his
unit. For his heroic deeds, he was awarded Britain’s highest medal
for valour, the Victoria Cross (VC). At 26, Khudadad, who later rose
to the rank of Subedar, became the first native-born Indian to win the
medal.

Here
began the story of
Victoria Crosses won by Indians. A story immortalised by deeds of
heroism. A story whose mortal link with the present generation snapped
with the passing away of Subedar and Hony Capt Umrao Singh, a resident
of Haryana, last month. At 86, Captain Umrao Singh was the last
surviving Indian VC winner.

According to Brig Sant
Singh (Retd) President of the War Decorated India, an association of
Indian gallantry awardees, as many as 40 VCs were awarded to Indian
soldiers (including those who later moved to Pakistan) for gallantry
in various campaigns around the globe as part of the British Indian
Army during the era of the Raj.

Sub Darwan Singh

Though the story of
Indian VCs started from the battle at Hollebeke, the first Indian
soldier to receive the VC was Subedar Darwan Singh Negi of the 1st
Battalion of 39th Garhwal Rifles.

According to his citation, when on
the night of November 23-24, 1914, near Festubert in France, when the
regiment was engaged in retaking and clearing the enemy out of the
British trenches, although he had been wounded at two places in the
head, and also in the arm, he was one of the first to push round each
successive traverse, in the face of severe rifle fire and bomb
explosions at close range.

Though Subedar Khan’s
actions pre-dated those of Subedar Negi, he was in fact the second
recipient of the VC. Subedar’s Negi’s VC is reported to be on
display at the Garhwal Rifles Centre at Lansdowne in Uttaranchal.
Subedar Khan is said to have retired from the Army before the
Partition and settled down in an area that is now in Pakistan.

Though instituted in
1856, the right to receive the VC was extended to Indian native
soldiers only in 1912. Till then, the Indian Order of Merit (IOM) was
the highest decoration for gallantry that could be awarded to Indian
soldiers. This is interesting as the largest number of VCs won in a
single day—24—was in India in 1857 at Lucknow during what in India
is called as the First War of Independence and the British refer to as
the Sepoy Mutiny. All awardees were British.

"The award of the
VC to Indian soldiers greatly enhanced their prestige and
respect," says Mandeep Bajwa, a Chandigarh-based defence analyst.
"The VC is recognised the world over as a symbol of extreme
courage and it gave Indian troops their due," he adds.
Post-Independence, the VC was replaced by the Param Vir Chakra.

Till date, 1,355 VCs
have been awarded. With the death of Capt Umrao Singh, the number of
surviving VC winners has come down to just 12. Till he was alive, Capt
Umrao Singh was a legend in his home district of Jind in Haryana.

A tribute to
women’s bravery

Although no woman
has won the VC, a gold representation of the decoration was
presented to Mrs. Webber Harris, wife of the Commanding Officer,
104th Bengal Fusiliers, by the officers of the Regiment for her
"indomitable pluck" in nursing the men of the Regiment
during a cholera outbreak in September 1859. The outbreak was so
bad that 27 men died in one night. In post-Independence India,
though no woman has been awarded the Param Vir Chakra, Neejra
Bhanot, a flight purser with Pan Am was awarded its
"peace-time" equivalent, the Ashoka Chakra, for
showing extreme courage during a hijack situation.

Double
gallantry

Naib-Sub Nand Singh

Naib Subedar Nand
Singh, who fell on the battlefield on December 12, 1947 is the
highest decorated Indian soldier. He was awarded the Victoria
Cross in World War II and in 1947 was awarded the Maha Vir
Chakra (posthumously), India’s second highest gallantry award,
in operations against Pakistani invaders.

At Arakan in
Burma, he had single handedly charged and captured three
trenches held by the Japanese. Although wounded and the sole
survivour of his section, he personally killed seven of the
enemy with his rifle bayonet. In Uri, he led his men to evict
the enemy from bunkers. Wounded and under heavy fire, he pressed
on and engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat, killing five of
them. His personal example inspired his men and the enemy fled
before their onslaught. He captured the position but as he stood
atop the bunker, a burst from an enemy machinegun killed him.

"A few years ago the
Punjab Government granted a Class I job to his grandson,"
Brig K S Kahlon (Retd), former Director Sainik Welfare, Punjab
said. "It was as a tribute to the gallant soldier and
age-old rules were amended for the same," he added.

All for
valour

The Victoria Cross
was instituted during the reign of Queen Victoria and is the
highest award for gallantry in Britain and the Commonwealth. It
was instituted by Royal Warrant in 1856 but was made
retrospective to the Autumn of 1854 to cover the period of the
Crimean War.

The warrant
ordained that the Cross shall only be awarded for most
conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour
or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of
the enemy. Later, the warrant was amended to allow award
"under circumstances of extreme danger". At least
three witnesses must make sworn written statements as to the
exact circumstances of the action involved for the citation for
award of the VC.

It is described as
a Maltese Cross, 1.375 inches wide and dark brown in finish. It
is suspended from a crimson ribbon by a horizontal 1.5 inch long
bar ornamented with laurels. The words "For Valour"
are inscribed in the central roundel of the cross.

The VC is made
from the metal of the guns captured by the British from the
Russians at Sebastopol, the last great battle of the Crimean War
in 1854-55. The metal is kept in the custody of the 15 Regiment
Royal Logistic Corps in Donnington and rarely sees the light of
theday as it is secured in special vaults. Since its inception,
the VC has been made by the same London jewellers, Messrs
Hancocks and Co. Its design is attributed to H.H. Armstead, who
was working for the jewellers at that time.

Till date 1355 VCs
have been awarded. The youngest winners were 15-year olds Andrew
Fitzgibbon and Thomas Flinn, while the oldest was 61-year-old
William Raynor. Only three men have won the VC twice. These are
Arthur Martin-Leake, Noel Chavasse and Charles Upham. There have
been three caseswhere both father and son have received
the VC, though in different battles.

He
was also a powerful motivating force for youngsters, a large number of
whom have joined the forces.

Capt Ganju Lama, known as “Tank Killer” by his mates, was
awarded the VC during the Burma Campaign in 1944 for destroying
two Japanese tanks despite a broken wrist and two other wounds.
He then engaged the escaping tank crew. Just a few weeks
earlier, he was decorated with the Military Medal for destroying
an enemy tank. Though belonging to 7 Gurkha Rifles, which went
to Britain after Independence, he opted to remain in India and
was absorbed into the newly raised 11 GR.

According to records,
Capt Umrao Singh was awarded the VC for fighting off repeated attacks
made on his section by the Japanese during the Arakan advance in
December 1944. When all ammunition had been expended, Captan Singh
closed in upon the enemy by engaging in hand-to-hand fighting. He
felled three enemy soldiers before being knocked unconscious. Later,
when a counter-attack regained the position, he was found badly
wounded beside his gun, with 10 dead Japanese lying around him. He was
awarded his VC by King George VI in October 1945. He retired from the
Army in 1965.

The VC is arguably the
most widely recognised gallantry award in the world and some say, also
the most prestigious. In India, which has a chequered history of
warfare, not much, however, is known about the gallantry award
winners, including post-Independence awards. Unfortunately, in India
gallantry award winners do not get public recognition and respect as
they do in many other countries where many honours are bequeathed on
heroes.

In the United States,
for example, the winner of the Medal of Honour, its highest gallantry
award, is saluted first by any uniformed person regardless of rank. In
Britain, it is always "VC first!" Surviving members of the
Victoria Cross Association hold a convention in the United Kingdom
once in two years. "A dinner is hosted in their honour by the
ruling monarch," Brig Sant Singh said.

Sub Khudadad Khan

"Indian soldiers
played a crucial role in both World Wars, but their role is relatively
unknown. History taught in schools and colleges makes little reference
to wars and battles, both pre andpost-Independence
in which Indian troops won laurels," says the Brigadier. The most
striking example is the epic battle of Saragarhi, fought in 1897 in
the mountains of the North-Western Frontier Province.

Etched in military
history as one of the five greatest battles ever fought, it is taught
in schools of France and figures as one of the eight collective
stories on bravery published by UNESCO. Troops of 36th Battalion of
the Sikh Regiment (now 4 Sikh), had died defending their post to the
last man against an estimated 7,000 tribesmen. All 21 troopers killed
were awarded the IOM. Except for a brief mention in history
schoolbooks prescribed in Punjab, nowhere does this battle feature in
the academic curriculum at the school and college levels.

Indian VCs have been in
the public eye in the recent past, after there were reports of them
being auctioned off, generally to anonymous buyers. "There are
several websites on the Internet where details about auctions are
available," Bajwasays. In fact, the Directorate of Sainik
Welfare, Punjab, recently cautioned ex-servicemen against buyers and
agents posing as representatives of the Army and seeking their medals
on the pretext that their regiments wanted these for ceremonial
purposes. There have been cases where unsuspecting ex-servicemen have
been duped of their hard-earned campaign medals.

The most notable of
these auctions was the auction of the VC awarded to Capt Ishar Singh,
the first Sikh soldier to win a Victoria Cross. The Cross was
reportedly auctioned to an unknown buyer in London in 1998 for
£55,000 pounds. This was the third time this VC was auctioned.

Capt Ishar won the VC
for extraordinary deeds of valour during a three-hour battle on the
North-Western Frontier Province in 1921. Though he was wounded, he
captured a Lewis machine gun and shielded the medical officer with his
body while the doctor attended to the wounded. Then a sepoy with the
28th Battalion of the Punjab Regiment, he was commended by King George
V, who wrote that the "award was well and gallantly won.’’
During his military career, Ishar Singh had won several other
decorations. He died in 1963.

He was a resident of
Nainwan village in Hoshiarpur. His family members were deeply upset
over the VC being "lost" and had made efforts at that time
to pool in resources to get the decoration back. While the Sainik Rest
House at Hoshiarpur has been named after Ishar Singh, the family has
built a small memorial to keep the war hero’s
memory alive.

Earlier this year, there
were reports of another Indian Victoria Cross, along with a group of
12 other medals won by Subedar Major Agansing Rai of the 5th Gurkha
Rifles, being auctioned for an astounding £115,000. He had won the
Victoria Cross during the Battle of Imphal in June 1944. He was
decorated for magnificent display of initiative, outstanding bravery
and gallant leadership, which so inspired his company that in spite of
heavy casualties and a superior enemy force, two important positions
were wrestled back from the enemy. The group included the 1939-45 Star
and post-Independence medals like the United Nations Medal for Congo.

A file photo of Hony Capt Umrao Singh in front of his house in Palara village
near Jind in Haryana

The
50th anniversary of the
end of World War II was one among the several mega-celebrations
organised in the UK during the fading years of the last century. The
recurrent theme of almost all ceremonies was the hope that the carnage
of the battlefield must not be allowed to inflict humanity in the new
millennium.

It was appropriate that
the Indian contingent to the celebrations would include soldiers
decorated with the Victoria Cross, the foremost award for gallantry on
the battlefield. Of the 32 Indian awardees of the VC during World War
II, only 11 were alive at that time. Four could not take the journey
to UK due to old age and illness. That left seven and they were glad
to participate.

Despite multiple
infirmities through battle injuries and years of frugal rural living,
their looks belied the fact that they had entered their seventies. All
had the immaculate carriage of proud soldiers even though the six
Gorkha war veterans had various grades of flab around their midriffs.
The seventh was Subedar and Hony Capt Umrao Singh. Over six-feet tall,
of ram-rod stance, flat-bellied and broad chested, he was somehow the
cynosure of all eyes. The way he walked up to Queen Elizabeth at the
Buckingham Palace, any drill sergeant-major of the Coldstream Guards
would beenvious of his
calibrated and firm strides. Breaking all precedence of the ceremonial
ettiquette, the gathering burst into spontaneous applause!

On another occasion when
the VC Indians, alighting at the car-park, walked past the formidable
bear-skin helmeted guardsmen to enter the Buckingham Palace
fore-court, John Major, the Prime Minister happened to drive past
them. When from the corner of his eye he caught the sun glint on their
VC medals, the Prime Minister had his Bentley halt. He walked up and
saluted them all and greeted each with a firm hand shake.

Victoria Cross and other medals awarded to Sub-Maj Aagan Singh Rai, which were auctioned in London recently for £115,000

Dismissing his car, John
Major escorted them to the venue of the function. Striking
conversation through his aide*, he enquired if the war veterans had
any hardships which needed attention. Umrao Singh was prompt to state
that when he first drew his VC allowance in 1946, the currency
exchange rate was Rs 2 to £1. Now 50 years later, the allowance
handed out to him was at the same old exchange rate. Is not that
unjust, he enquired? John Major was visibly upset at this revelation
and in all seriousness said that this must be the gravest of all
bureaucratic lapses for which Her Majesty’s Government holds itself
fully accountable.

A week later, when Umrao
and his VC companion alighted the air-liner at New Delhi, they were
received by an officer from the British High Commission with the news
that with immediate effect their VC allowance will be admitted to them
at the prevailing currency exchange rate or the next higher rate but
never lower than that day’s.

But how and why did we
in India allow this injustice to pass for full 50 years? In UK if a
man (nationality notwithstanding) with a VC or MC pinned on chest were
to walk out, chances are that five out of 10 passers-by would halt in
mid-stride, smile and nod in salutation. In India even though
righteous wars and warriors have been glorified by the gods through
the epic Mahabharata, yet not one in 1,000 will know what a PVC, MVC
or VrC look like, leave alone greet its wearer.

Six months later in
March 1996 Christopher Thomas, the South Asia correspondent of The
Times (London) drove to Umrao Singh’s home at Village Palra (Jhajjar
district, Haryana) with the news that Her Majesty’s Government had
enhanced the VC annual allowance from £100.00 to £1300.00.
Obviously, Umrao Singh was astounded with the prospects of this
windfall. Recovering his composure, he rushed to his wife Vimla who
was frying paranthas on a wood-fire and said: "Now we can live in
style."

Inviting Christopher
Thomas to sit down on his charpoy, Umrao Singh brought out a
bottle of Old Monk rum. Cracking the seal open, he filled two large
steel tumblers almost to the brim,. Handing one to Christopher and
holding his own in the left hand, Umrao came to attention and giving a
smart salute said: "This is for John Major, the Prime Minister of
Britain ! He has made me happy and proud." There was a glow on
Umrao Singh’s face in the thought that he would now pass his
allotted days with the dignity due to a VC soldier.

Well, Umrao Singh the
last of the VC veterans of the Indian Army passed away on November 21
2005, on his 86th birthday. He was cremated with full military and
state honours. Moments before the pyre was lit, the Army Chief fully
bemedalled, saluted his mortal remains.

And that brought to my
mind the concluding words from General Douglas Mac Arthur’s speech
to a joint session of the US Congress: